With the launch of Workplace Hub, a new approach to IT services and data management, Konica Minolta is embarking on a path that two years ago, might not have even been imagined. But the Business Innovation Centers (BIC) which have given birth to the Workplace Hub were established in 2014 to create innovative products and ideas that could change the way people interact with technology. Workplace Hub is one of those innovations.

It was conceived of as a way to make better use of the office printer. “Printers can be the unloved uncle in the room,” Stacy Sujeebun, director of marketing communications at Konica Minolta says. She worked within the BIC team on Workplace Hub throughout the development process and is currently supporting its launch, and Konica’s communications strategy, from the United States. “It was about transforming that one metre by one metre space. We’re trying to take that space and make that real estate much more useful to businesses.” Konica Minolta’s core business is in printing and imaging, but Workplace Hub soon grew beyond a means of making a printer more useful.